Haar Just Taking it “One Camp at a Time”

Garrett Haar, in his second year of D-Camp (Photos by Matthew Hazlett)

This time last year, it looked like all roads led back to Fargo for 2011 seventh-round draft pick Garrett Haar. But following some timely intervention from George McPhee and consideration of his options, Haar ended up at Western Michigan where a whole new set of doors opened up.

“I’m really happy with my decision to go to Western,” Haar said. “I don’t think there were any negatives in going to Western. I got to play against better competition. And, nothing against juniors, but I think that college is where I needed to be and I have no regrets.”

For Haar, it was a big year. To recap, he earned a spot on the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s All-Rookie team, won a CCHA title with the Broncos, and was named to the 2012 USA Hockey Junior National Evaluation Camp roster.

But Haar didn’t take much credit for all of his successes at Western Michigan. For him, it was all about the team.

“I had a really good year at Western,” he said. “The coaching was great, players were great, I loved all my teammates. Obviously winning the CCHA helped us a lot, so that helped us have a really good year. I just like the way that our team does everything. The way we do things is we work really hard. We don’t really expect much going in, but we play a really good team game and we’re there for each other. It was a really fun year and I’m excited to go back.”

With the USA Junior Camp coming up, Haar is only “taking it one camp at a time.” And for this week, it’s all about Washington.

“I’m not really thinking about the USA camp right now, I’m focused on this camp, and when this camp’s over I’ll focus on the USA camp,” he said. “This will be a good tune-up to get a chance to skate and whatnot, but I’m focused on the Capitals camp right now.”

And while he said he doesn’t have any specific goals for the week, he said he’s just going to go out there and show what he’s got.

“I’m not really expecting much, just going out there to play my hardest and do what I can,” Haar said.